


Open Doors

by beeeinyourbonnet



Series: The Rumbelle IT Crowd AU [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-10 13:49:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3292694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beeeinyourbonnet/pseuds/beeeinyourbonnet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle and Jones find out a secret about the new head of the IT department.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Open Doors

Tucked behind the cracked kitchenette door like two sardines trying to break free, Belle and Killian stared across the room at the closed door of their supposed new supervisor.

“I’m the head of this department,” Belle whispered. It was all she’d been able to say when Mr. Gold had waltzed in with his golden-topped cane and unwelcome announcement.

“We’ve got to do something about this. He’s going to make us do actual work.”

“I know.” Belle squinted at the door. “We need some sort of angle.”

“Right. But what angle?”

They wiggled, as though getting a better view of the office door would lend them more leverage. Nothing in the room moved, save for Belle and Killian as they tried to get comfortable in their spy nook, until the door they were staring at shook as the room erupted into a fit of cursing.

“Do you think he’s all right?” Belle asked, starting to pull the kitchenette door. Killian grabbed hold to steady it, yanking her back in when she tried to leave.

“He’s fine. No mercy. This is war. We have to think.”

“But—”

“No.” Killian snapped. “Okay, we’ve got to go find a weakness.”

“A weakness? You mean like his limp? I’m not going to use a crippled man’s handicap against him, Killian.”

“No, no, no, like a—like an emotional weakness.”

Belle frowned, staring at the again-still door. “I don’t know. I don’t want to exploit him. I just want him to have a different job.”

“Then we have to exploit him. Let’s go.”

“Let’s—what? Killian!”

“We have to offer to connect up his phone anyway. Might as well do it now.”

“Won’t it look a bit suspicious if we both go?” Belle asked.

“You’re right. I’ll go myself.”

Killian started forward, but Belle skidded in front of him, stopping him with a hand to his chest. He looked over her shoulder at the door, leg shaking like a dog waiting to be let out. “What?”

“I’ll go.” She let go of him to smooth out her peach skirt. “I am the head of this department, after all.”

Killian scoffed, but soon Belle was taking a deep breath in front of Gold’s closed door before rapping on it three times.

“Yes, of course, Regina,” Gold said, and Belle frowned. “Yes, absolutely—oh, come in—yes, we’re thick as thieves.”

Assuming he meant her, Belle pushed the door open. Gold was sprawled back in his decaying desk chair, long hair fanned out around his head as though he was preparing to film an ad, desk phone pressed to his ear. He nodded at her, holding up a finger to indicate that she wait. The phone’s unlit console screen was blank.

“Actually, she’s in here right now—I’ll keep you posted—yes, goodbye, dear.” He hung the phone up, and Belle was sure she didn’t imagine his whispered ‘cow’ as he did. By the time he looked up at her, however, his face was unreadable. “What do you want?”

“Well, I was coming in to see if you wanted me to hook up your phone.”

He stared at her. She stared back, face as blank as his, until his lips twisted into a nasty sneer.

 “Obviously, I’ve already hooked it up myself. That’s how I was talking on it. You’ll have to be more observant if you plan to keep your job.”

Belle swallowed, eyes darting toward the blank phone again. “Right. Of course.”

They stared at each other again, Belle twisting her hands behind her back. Gold had a face that could have been welcoming, but somehow his pale brown eyes and crooked nose made him look sharp, like he could cut a diamond by looking at it.

“Well, get out, then.”

“Right. Yes. Of course. My apologies.” Belle scurried from the room, shutting the door behind her, and kept scurrying until she and Killian were tucked back into the kitchenette.

“So?” he asked, arms folded.

“He was having a fake phone conversation with Regina.”

“What—fake? On his mobile, you mean?”

“No, on his office phone. And then he said he’d already hooked it up, as though I couldn’t see that it wasn’t on.”

“What a loser. We could tell Regina he was lying about her. She’d probably fire him.”

“No, that’s cruel.” Belle tapped her chin, lips twisting in thought. “You know, I’ve got this—this nagging suspicion.”

“What? What is it? Tell me.”

She pulled the door handle to ensure that the door was as closed as it could be, and then crept backwards. “I wonder if he knows anything about computers at all.”

Killian let out a gasp that was more of a scream, and Belle pressed both palms over his mouth. “Shh! We don’t want him to know we’re onto him!”

He nodded, breathing deeply and letting it out when Belle removed her hands. “All right, all right, this is brilliant. We just have to prove it.”

“I have an idea.”

“Me too, actually. I think we should go in there, make up a load of bollocks about computers, and see if he catches on.”

“Brilliant, that was my idea, too.” Belle strode back to the door and gentled it open, checking to see that there was still light coming from the uneven crack beneath Gold’s office door.

“Great. So I’ll do all the talking, because you’re shit at lying.”

“I am not,” Belle said, but since it was true, she didn’t protest once he lifted an eyebrow.

Gold’s ‘come in’ was slightly less pleasant than last time, and his upper lip curled when he saw Killian and Belle together. He swiveled away from his computer screen, fingers still on the keyboard.

“What do you want now? Don’t you have—things to fix?”

“Yeah, actually, wanted to talk to you about fixing things,” Killian said.

“Oh?”

“Aye. Since you’re the head of the department and all, we thought you should know that there was a DNS error this morning, and the servscript malfunctioned due to the iostream not being included in the hard code. We wiped the mainframe, but it could still be causing trouble.”

Gold swallowed, and to avoid seeming like she was observing him, Belle directed her attention to the shelf behind him. Even though he’d only been there a few hours, it was already pristine, and hanging straighter than it had in years.

“You made that up,” Gold said, turning back to his computer and starting to type.

Belle would have looked back at Killian, but the power strip under the shelf had caught her eye. There was nothing plugged into it.

Killian laughed. “Ah, yeah, sorry. Rite of passage. We do it to all the new guys. Did it to Belle when she got here. Just like to make sure everyone’s up to speed with their technical knowledge.”

Belle walked around the desk, ignoring the less-than-flattering things Gold muttered about the two of them, and picked up the cord to his computer from where it lay, unplugged, on the ground.

“I’ll let it slide this time, but tread carefully in the future,” Gold said, then swiveled around to face Belle. “What are you doing?”

Belle plugged the computer into the strip, and flipped the switch on. “I’m just plugging in your computer.”

Gold’s eyes met hers, and she raised the power strip for him. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his pale throat.

“Right, well, I’ll just leave you be, then,” Killian said, backing out of the room.

Gold frowned, glancing out the door. “Didn’t he just—?”

“He’ll realize in a minute,” Belle said, setting the power strip back down and folding her arms. She and Gold both looked at the door.

Seconds later, Killian tripped his way back in, brandishing a finger at Gold. “I knew it! You know nothing about computers, you useless old man!”

Gold swallowed, looked between the two of them, and raised his hands. “I can explain.”


End file.
